Creating PDF files

Hans van der Maarel

Posted 07 May 2005 - 01:06 PM

Hans van der Maarel

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I'm looking for a way to create PDF files of sections of documents from Illustrator. Not the entire document, but just a small portion of it. In the past, I've used the Create Adobe PDF print-driver (*not* the Adobe PDF Writer, which is rather useless for map production as it soesn't do anything bigger than 45 inch), but I can't find that one anywhere online. Other PDF writers that I've found so far either raster everything (which I prefer not to do) or include the entire document and place a mask over it (again, not what I would prefer).

Kartograph

Posted 08 May 2005 - 01:40 AM

Kartograph

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One way to skin the cat:

command print -> print to ps-file -> place the positioner over your desired area
then you use the acrobat distiller to make a pdf out of your postscript file. Good for making the pre-print coulour seperation etc. Also good for making vector pdfs.
drawback: you need a posscript printer (at least the devicedriver) and acrobat professional.

Posted 08 May 2005 - 02:27 AM

Yeah, I thought about that one too. Actually, I think you don't need a Postscript printer or Distiller... Can't you simply place the ps file in a new Illustrator document and save that as PDF?

Maybe I should just contact Adobe and see if they can help me locate the right driver... Really frustrating, because there's only one that does exactly what I want... I used it to produce maps up to 2.4x2.4 meters with a big TIFF and transparent polygons overlaid, absolutely no problem at all. Well... actually... the printing company couldn't handle a 250 Mb PDF

Can you not generate a vector PDF of the entire document using the regular driver? I´ve never had a page size limitation, I can create custom page sizes and print to them(although I admit that I rarely exceed standard US sheet sizes of 28" x 40", but I´ve definitely created documents larger than 45"). Anywas,to get back to your question I would then crop the resultant PDF in Acrobat Pro using the crop tool in the edit toolbar. Cropping a PDF to a certain size or to isolate certain parts has always worked well for me using this crop tool, and it leaves my original illustrator document intact which is also good.